82. Encouragement goes a long way
A lot further than tearing down, anyway.

I believe in the power of positive feedback loops. With a growing child, it’s important to understand how they work. For example this morning, she came into our room and wished me and Charlotte good morning. A seemingly small gesture, but it was after us wishing her good morning every day since she was born that she realized this was good behavior.
The same thing goes for encouragement. If there’s something we want our daughter to do for her own personal growth — learning a musical instrument, say — we have to encourage her. Some parents have their own theories around this and I can accept that. But I think building someone up is always going to be better than ripping someone down. You just have to do it the right way.
This means rewarding good behavior and not bad behavior. As simple as that. Doing the same for yourself… now that’s a whole different story. We seem too keen to tear ourselves down at every possible moment and we wonder why we’re going nowhere in life. What if we started encouraging ourselves instead?
If you wouldn’t tear your son or daughter down on a regular basis, why would you do it to yourself?
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